The Space Merchants | More Than Human | The Long Tomorrow | The Shrinking Man | Double Star | The Stars My Destination | A Case of Conscience | Who? |The Big Time

Edited by Gary K. Wolfe

“Here is literary irony at glorious work: The Library of America has issued a gorgeous two-volume collection of novels, American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, most originally published as cheap paperbacks with cheesy covers. Yet many of the stories here—by Robert Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Leigh Brackett, and others—now come off as highly crafted material. This anthology contains the spores of sci-fi themes that would blossom, consciously or by chance, in much of contemporary film, TV, and literary fiction. Indeed, 1953’s The Space Merchants, by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, now reads like a precursor to everything Mad Men addresses about the ad business—just set in the future, and on various planets. Grade: A”—Entertainment Weekly

Modern science fiction came of age in the 1950s, and it was in America that the genre broke most exuberantly free from convention. Moving beyond the pulp magazines, science fiction writers stretched their imaginations at novel length, ushering in an era of stylistic experiment and freewheeling speculation that responded in wildly inventive ways to the challenges and perplexities of an era of global threat and rapid technological change. Long unnoticed or dismissed by the literary establishment, these “outsider” novels are now recognized as American classics.

Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, The Space MerchantsWhat’s it all worth?

Theodore Sturgeon, More Than HumanCould this be the next stage of evolution?

Leigh Brackett, The Long TomorrowWho will control post-apocalyptic America?

James Blish, A Case of ConscienceWhat in God’s name are we to do with aliens?

Algis Budrys, Who?Can you trust?

Fritz Leiber, The Big TimeIs the past ever really past?

Visit the companion website for more on 1950s science fiction and these works and writers, including jacket art and photographs, additional stories, author interviews, and new appreciations by Michael Dirda, Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Nicola Griffith, James Morrow, Tim Powers, Kit Reed, Peter Straub, and Connie Willis.

Gary K. Wolfe, editor, is Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University’s Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies and the author, most recently, of Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature and Sightings: Reviews 2002–2006.